Gluten-Free Spaghetti and Meatballs

Esteem any person that enjoys cooking for assorted of us, I continually need my desk to undoubtedly feel inclusive—a happy, apt build for each person. This implies no longer factual making of us undoubtedly feel welcome, but acknowledging with admire, never with criticism, any dietary considerations or points. This is in a position to perchance well mean whipping up a festive alcohol-free sipper or making a vegan version of a dish that’s on the menu. Extra customarily than no longer, though, I obtain myself playing around with gluten-free dishes. That’s due to my dad, who lives in the identical town as I accumulate (Birmingham, Alabama), became diagnosed with celiac illness loads of years previously.I undoubtedly love having my fogeys over as customarily as doubtless; I undoubtedly feel lucky that we ended up in the identical city, and I love that my young of us can expertise a cease relationship with their grandparents. I will customarily procure naturally gluten-free meals (roast fish or meat, vegetables), but I fully procure a thrill from discovering a contrivance to suppose a gluten-free version of a on the total wheat-primarily based mostly dish, one that can give my dad a taste of something he notion he’d never expertise but again. I don’t mean a tragic change for the traditional (sorry, cauliflower-crust pizza!) but something that in truth scratches the itch.That’s the keep Gluten-Free Spaghetti and Meatballs comes into play. I’ve identified that the gluten-free pasta alternatives have gotten critically better in the last few years, and that Dad’s favourite is the kind made of corn and rice. I recount, most of us can’t repeat the distinction between it and feeble pasta. So I’ve had Mother and Dad over for pasta with traditional ragù or Bolognese. However I wanted to play around with meatballs, and I remembered a secret ingredient that I notion could well work effectively: instantaneous potato flakes.That’s safe—dehydrated flaked potatoes. For me, they’re a remarkable more versatile pantry merchandise than any packaged gluten-free breadcrumbs. I strive to lend a hand them on hand no longer for making instantaneous mashed potatoes—I factual don’t love them—but as an alternative for thickening soups, breading fish or rooster (foodandwine.com noted this years previously), or making my deviled egg filling a runt bit heftier. I figured they would per chance work effectively in meatballs, and I became safe. They bind ground meat in particular effectively and add a delightful richness no longer like conventional breadcrumbs. If truth be told, these have now change into my “dwelling” meatballs; I discover to procure a double batch and freeze some for exercise afterward pizza (my favourite), in grain bowls, or in soups. It’s a obtain-obtain: All people in my family can expertise a comforting, family-obedient traditional.